AN INTERACTION OF WHEAT-GERM INITIATION-FACTOR 4B WITH OLIGORIBONUCLEOTIDES

The binding of oligoribonucleotides to wheat germ protein synthesis initiation factor eIF-4B was measured by direct fluorescence techniques. An analysis of the equilibrium association constants (K-eq) indicates that eIF-4B binding is not affected by the m(7)GTP cap structure or the AUG. eIF-4B is insensitive to hairpin structures within the oligoribonucleotide. The binding site size is approximately 18 bases. The binding of oligoribonucleotide to eIF-4B as a function of pH, temperature, and ionic strength is also described. The pH dependent binding showed an increase in binding with increasing pH in contrast to the sharp pH optimum observed for cap binding protein eIF-4E (Carberry, S. E., Darzynkiewicz, E., and Goss, D. J. (1991) Biochemistry 30, 1624-1627). Assuming all tryptophan residues contribute to the observed fluorescence, iodide quenching showed that 8(+/- 1) out 9 of eIF-4B's tryptophan residues are on the surface of the eIF-4B protein. A specific anion effect of Cl- on eIF-4B binding to oligoribonucleotide was found when comparing the ionic strength effect of KC2H3O2 and KCl.